Dear Rod:
We have an instructor at our local airport who insists that the pilot flying have his hand on the throttle pretty much at all times and goes bonkers if you take it off during the takeoff or on final approach. No trim or flap adjustments may be made on final approach. He’s so insistent that he will not sign pilots off for a checkout if they�drop their hand off the throttle.�
I always taught my students to have their hand on the throttle on takeoff, probably because that’s how I was taught. As I’ve thought more and more about this, it probably helped prevent overcontrolling more than anything. I’ve never seen a throttle move where I couldn’t adjust it in a flash. What say you?
No Name Please
Greetings NNP:
The basic idea of having student pilots keep their hand on the throttle during takeoff and landing is a reasonable one. On the other hand, there’s no good reason whatsoever that a student pilot (or any other pilot for that matter) shouldn’t take his hand off the throttle during takeoff or while on final approach to do his or her cockpit business. What if a bug landed on your nose? Are you supposed to sit there cross-eyed? That’s not how to debug your landings. To suggest that a student not be allowed to retrim the airplane either on takeoff or landing by moving the hand from the throttle to the trim wheel is completely unreasonable. Your local CFI should reconsider his position.
Dear Rod:
I’m a private pilot. I have a friend who is a sport pilot instructor with a Light Sport tailwheel airplane. Can he give me a tailwheel endorsement in that airplane? Is it good for non-LSAs, too?
Virgil
Greetings Virgil:
A tailwheel endorsement is a tailwheel endorsement, period. A sport pilot airplane instructor is good to give a tailwheel endorsement to any pilot rated for ASEL so long as the instruction is given in an LSA.�That tailwheel endorsement is then good for any airplane the pilot wishes to fly.
Dear Rod:
I’m a student pilot and am getting close to solo. One thing confuses me. Before making a turn, I’m supposed to check for traffic by raising the wing on my Cessna 172. I’m not sure I’m doing this correctly. Do I just turn the wheel and raise the wing? This seems a bit awkward, can you clarify, please?
Dave
Greetings Dave:
You are extremely lucky to have only one thing that confuses you. Hopefully, I can clear this thing up for you. There are two ways to raise a wing and check for traffic. One is elegant and the other is not. You can raise the wing by turning the wheel (deflecting the ailerons) without using rudder. This certainly raises the wing, but it also causes adverse yaw to induce a temporary sideslip. It’s not an elegant technique, and it doesn’t make your passengers feel comfortable. That’s why I always prefer to raise the wing with the coordinated use of aileron and rudder.
Dear Rod:
I fly an airplane with a cowling that can’t be easily opened for inspection during preflight. Do I need to take off that cowling to do a thorough preflight?
Thank you,
Tampa
Greetings Tampa:
I’ve never had an entire city submit a question before, so this is great!
Technically speaking, you don’t need to remove the cowling to do a normal preflight inspection of your airplane. You can preflight under the cowling in a very thorough and satisfactory way by using a flashlight and your hand (but only when the engine is cool, unless you have a full sleeve of cylinder-fin arm tattoos). The flashlight allows you to see deep into the engine cowling and your hand allows you to touch fuel lines and other items to ensure they’re attached properly. That said, if you have a reason to suspect that something is wrong in the ’hood under the hood, then a qualified person should remove the cowling for a more thorough inspection.
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